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Friday, July 6, 2012

RMNP 2012 07 03

This was the day I was finally able to get back to my favorite creek in RMNP's Wild Basin. I was waiting for this day more than 6 months... Don't get me wrong, the two previous Sunday's family trips to the Alluvial Falls were great and the 2nd time around, I was able to catch 8 or 9 greenback cutthroat and a brookie (!) in less than an hour, in the midst of tourists. My friend overheard a woman say "... there are no fish in that trickle..." just when I hooked one of those wild colorful jewels. But Wild Basin is my personal fly fishing heaven.

I hoped all day for a Colorado Grand Slam and the first fish of the day was a brown trout so I got all hopeful, but alas, I only got two shots at a rainbow trout and both times the strike was too short.

the first trout of the day, a brown trout...

... came from the the calm water on the far left.

Moving upstream, I hopped from pool to pool, trying to find water I could get into and fish - the water was a bit high at 80cfs and ripping particularly in the steeper sections. I sure was glad I had my wading staff with my that day. I caught brookies left and right, upstream and downstream. It felt like they were hitting anything that looked like food. I caught so many brookies (I really wanted to catch more greenback cutts) that anytime a brookie took the fly I was a bit disappointed. But by the end of the day I got two greenback cutts and I was a happy camper.

brookie - underwatershot (I need more practice!)

first greenback

brookie chunk

brookie with orange butt sakasa kebari

greenback no. 2

Overall a great day, lots of willing fish, no other fisherman on the river, what do you need more?

I got home tired but very happy! Can't wait to get back up there soon!

I love catching fish at the Fan in and amongst the busyness of the hikers and wading children - folks always seem surprised. If that's the stream that I think it is - I always seem to catch many more brookies. Strangely enough the place where I caught cutthroat was the big pool below the waterfall not far from the trailhead. Also caught them in the tributary below the cascades.

Who....?

My home is currently London where I moved to in 2015 from Denver, Colorado, where I started fishing tenkara in 2010. I grew up in Switzerland, then spent a few years in Vienna/Austria and moved then to the New York City area where I met my wife. I learned fly fishing in 1998 in the Austrian Alps while living Vienna/Austria.